Jane Fonda's Ranch Inspired Michael Jackson To Buy Neverland

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Jane Fonda has revealed for the first time that a fateful visit by Michael Jackson to her California ranch in 1981 inspired the late pop singer to eventually purchase his own.

“I had a ranch in Santa Barbara,” the 73-year-old fitness guru and actress told CNN’s Piers Morgan . “And he came and visited me once. And I was walking him around. It’s how he was introduced to that area — where he eventually bought Neverland — is when I had him to my ranch.”

That ranch, I believe, is Laurel Springs – a 160-acre property located on a ridgetop in the Santa Ynez Mountain range. Fonda bought it with her husband Tom Hayden, later turning it into a workout studio spa and a camp for disadvantaged children. She later sold the property in the late 90s. It now serves as a retreat center for those groups “dedicated to conscious ways of living.”

Fonda recalled a moment from Jackson’s visit where the young pop star recoiled after she pointed out the spot where she intended to be buried. She said he declared that he was never going to die.

“He talked about how he would get into an oxygen tank and he thought that was going to keep him, you know, alive forever.”

As for Jackson’s own famous 2,800 acre Neverland Ranch, from what we know, work is still underway to preserve it. An update back in March from Colony Capital’s Tom Barrack, whose firm owns part of the rights to the property, indicate as such.

“Our plans have been to work to restore it to its original greatness,” he told Bloomberg TV. “The place is amazing. It has not only the beautiful spirit and softness of Michael, but a legacy of a thousand years of Indian culture that had transacted upon it. We have just been restoring it, renovating it.”